Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

from a repentant Petit himself, he was not so much upset about the idea that Petit could have
opened the telescope and seen its precise working, but his main concern was that father
Huygens would not forgive Petit easily. 387
Aside from a fascination for the subject and the objective to help his son, Constantijn
Sr. had another reason for being actively involved with his son’s business of instruments. With
the period of 1661-1665 years of intense diplomatic negotiations in both Paris and London, his
son’s many inventions, experiments and instruments were good assets for Constantijn Sr.
during the political talks. He was likely to entertain or even impress ambassadors, high-
ranking diplomats and other courtiers with the inventive instruments of his son, as they
presented a show of his and his son’s skills, but also offered a playful and appreciated
divertissement of more serious matters. As said, he often showed the telescope, and
Christiaan’s microscope. 388 Furthermore, as Christiaan complained to his brother Lodewijk in
April 1662: See here still another commission that my father gives me, to get ready for him one
lantern with 2 or 3 diverse drawings of which it shows the representation.” He kept it silent to his
father, but “to you [Lodewijk] I admit that these commissions do bother me strongly, and that
everything else that my father will ask me of similar things [he will ask] in vain.” 389 Making
such magical lanterns cost Christiaan much effort, and he thought they were so old-fashioned
that people just faked interest. Constantijn Sr., however, thought otherwise, and showed them
at court. Christiaan once obstructed these plans, writing to his brother:
As I have promised to send the lantern, then this will have to be done. I have not been able to
think up a good excuse not to do so. But when it arrives, you could, if you chose, easily put it
out of order. You must take out one of the three lenses standing together. I shall act as though I
have no idea what is wrong, and the ensuing explanation shall cause just the necessary waste of
time. This is all for his own good for, in my opinion, it does not befit my father to put on such
puppetry in the Louvre, and I am sure you would not wish to help him to do so. 390
387 Ibid., Vol. IV, No. 1079 (Dec. 1, 1662)
388 Ibid., Vol. V, No. 1266 (Oct. 31, 1664)
389 Ibid., Vol. IV, No. 1001 (Apr. 5, 1662): “Voila encore une autre commission que mon pere me donne,
de luy ajuster une lanterne avec 2 ou 3 diverses peintures dont elle face la representation. Je n’ay rien à
luy respondre sinon que je seray ce qu’il desire, et le plus promtement qu’il me sera possible; mais a vous
j’avoueray bien que ces commissions m’incommodent fort, et que tout autre que mon pere me
demanderoit en vain des choses semblables. Vous ne scauriez croire avec quelle peine je m’occupe a des
telles bagatelles qui me sont desia toutes vieilles, outre que j’ay honte que l’on scache par de là qu’elle
vienent de moy. L’on y est assez complaisant pour faire semblant de les admirer, mais après on s’en
mocquera et non pas sans raison. Pour l’avenir, s’il y a aucun moyen detournez moy je vous prie des
pareilles corvées.” My translation.
390 Ibid., Vol. IV, No. 1005 (Apr. 19, 1662)
109